


pigtail braids

by florest



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Single Parents, cute stuff, there may be an epilogue, woogyu with daughters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 04:28:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15833766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/florest/pseuds/florest
Summary: Living with a child was never in his dream or bucket list.





	pigtail braids

“Daddy, I want pigtail braids!” His six-year-old girl demanded as he clumsily placed a half-burnt toast into a lunch box. Living with a child was never in his dream or bucket list. He was a free guy who ate outside or ordered from delivery. His work life was already hectic it was a miracle if he had time to fry an egg.

  
That was few years ago. Before his single-mother sister passed away and left a two-year-old baby behind. Everything changed after that. His lifestyle, his work schedule, his hangout time. It still felt like a dream. Every so often, when he woke up in the morning, he would think that he still lived alone without someone to be fed or cared, his sister still alive, hardworking as usual. But then little steps and knocks on his bedroom door served him the reality he tried to hide from.

  
The reality was: he was an uncle with an adopted niece who preferred to call him daddy. He refused the name at first. The girl’s father was some asshole that wasn’t worth mentioning and he didn’t want to be called with a name that reminded him to the jerk. But he was a softie. His niece’s twinkling eyes when she called him daddy triggered his father-like feelings that he never knew existed in his heart. Not to mention that he grew fond of the little girl. He loved her as his own child. So much.

  
“What braid? Why do you want a pig on your braid?” he asked distractedly. Though he’d been a single dad for 4 years more or less, he still sucked at it.

  
“Nooo…” The girl whined, pasting her small body on the counter top. “Not that pig, but pigtail braids! Like Nahyun’s hair yesterday!”

  
After closing the lunch box’s lid tightly, he quickly put it inside his niece’s princess bag along with her notebook and drawing supplies. A glance at his watch showed how late they were to their destinations today. “I don’t understand, Sunhee. How about you ask Nahyun how to do it? So you can teach me later. Come on. You’re late.”

  
Sunhee sighed as Sunggyu dragged him out of the apartment, along with her bag and her uncle’s. “Nahyun can’t teach me. Her appa was the one who styled her hair,” she mumbled, dragging her legs behind his uncle who frantically led the way to the parking lot. They had to arrive to Nahyun’s school in 10 minutes, and then to his company in 3. God, he shouldn’t have played that game too late last night. “Woohyun uncle is so awesome. He makes Nahyun’s hair so pretty.”

  
That totally jabbed Sunggyu’s ego so bad. Well, he could not do anything but admitted that he was lost in that department. He didn’t even know how to tie hair, let alone braids. How could this Woohyun guy be so awesome and perfect and beautiful?

  
“Oh, God,” he said under his breath when he realized what he just thought. Yes, he kind of sort of like the shorter guy a little.

  
They first met at the parents meeting before the school started. Sunggyu attended it late and dozed off the rest of the meeting. He had a crazy week, okay. Don’t blame him, not his fault that his boss was a piece of perfectionist asshole. You can be a perfectionist without being an asshole at the same time, but nah. Sunggyu was just super lucky having the guy as the head of the department.

  
Anyway, he woke up (finally) when the meeting was over, a guy tapping his shoulder with a bright smile on his face. How the stranger still looked excited after listening to those boring speeches was still a mystery to Sunggyu. However, the smile was surprisingly contagious. Sunggyu found himself showing a similar one while they were walking together to the school entrance. Maybe Woohyun was extra friendly so that they both hit it off well, but he caught the black-haired guy’s shy glance when they departed and Sunggyu might interpret it correctly. Sometimes, his gay radar was quite sensitive.

  
Sadly, they didn’t meet or speak again after that. He got news about Woohyun’s well-being only from his niece who was a fan of the younger guy because not only pretty smiles, he also had talents in everything.

  
“Maybe I should ask him to teach me?” Sunggyu enquired, already planning what he needed to do and say so that he could arrange a “meeting” with his niece’s friend’s dad.

  
“Yes, you should!” Nahyun exclaimed happily, oblivious to his uncle’s modus operandi. What in her mind was how she could have pretty hair like a princess too.

 

* * *

  
Sunday afternoon, Sunggyu and Sunhee knocked on Woohyun’s front door. They practically bounced on their feet, Sunhee excited to meet her classmate outside of school, sunggyu nervous because holy hell this was the first time he went to the guy’s apartment and met him again after the meeting. He missed the contigious smile he saw on that tiring day, the chatter he heard in that short time, the—

  
Shit, the door was opened!

“Sunhee!” A little girl shrieked after she saw the two guests in front of her door. Her eyes and smile resembled her father, making Sunggyu awed in admiration.

“Nahyun!” His niece yelled back with the same amount of enthusiasm. It was not long that Sunggyu was left alone in the spot, awkwardly breathing and existing. Then he heard footsteps and that melodious low voice coming closer before a figure that he sort of missed appeared from inside the simple apartment.

“Hi. Nahyun forgets her manners when she’s excited. Sorry about that.” Woohyun smiled. “Come in.”

Sunggyu wanted to crawl back and left the place because Woohyun looked so cute with a tshirt and short pants. There was a baby blue bobby pin on his hair and he took it off when he finally realized he still had it. “Uh, Nahyun tried to make my hair look like a prince,” he shyly explained. “I’m sure that no princes in her cartoons wear bobby pins. She’s weird like that.”

“No, she’s cute.” Like you, Sunggyu wanted to continue but he bit it back, too early for any embarrassing-yourself events.

“Sunhee’s cute too. She asked me cutely to teach her father how to braid hair like a princess.” Woohyun led them to the living room. Sunhee and Nahyun were already there, playing animatedly with Barbie dolls on the floor. Sunggyu looked around the room as Woohyun excused himself for a second to somewhere. He noticed photo frames on the wall, of Woohyun and Nahyun showing their bright smiles. Only the two of them, no mother figure (or father if his gay radar was correct). He wondered why, but he only kept it to himself for it seemed rude to mention it in their second meeting.

Woohyun came back a while later with four cups of tea and a jar of biscuits for the girls. Sunhee clapped her hands enthusiastically when Woohyun bragged he made the sweet treats himself. The guy placed both his hands under his chin, framing his face with a flower pose and absorbing all the praises from her obnoxiously.

Sunggyu chuckled. Woohyun seemed really enjoy being a father. No wonder there’s a big banner on his face with ‘husband material’ typed in a cursive font with a little heart on the ‘i’. Oh shit, he’d already whipped in second meeting. Guess his 30 year-old mind was craving a commitment.

Anyway.

The lesson started a few minutes later with the little girls as lab rats. He was hesitant at first, afraid that he would pull his niece’s hair too hard. However, Woohyun was there promising he would prevent it to happen and Sunggyu wanted to kiss his glossed plump lips right then and there. He kissed his tea cup instead, slurping the warm liquid inside loudly.

His first attempt was a disaster. Nahyun laughed at Sunhee’s supposed-to-be-braided hair while Woohyun cleared his throat to hide his laughter. Sunhee? She gave him that disappointed but not surprised look that she had excelled since last year. Well, that was his first time doing things to hair that was not only combing or hair-gelling, cut him some slack. Also, it was a good opportunity to have Woohyun’s hands touching and guiding his own in his second attempt. Those hands were nice. A bit rough, probably from housework chores, but nice and warm, sending dragonflies into his belly. Or butterflies, whatever.  
To say it was a nice Sunday was an understatement. It was terrific.  
  


* * *

 

 

Sunhee was happy. She got her pigtail braids and a sparkling father. She didn’t know what had happened to the guy, but since that private lesson in Nahyun’s house, he was having these imaginary twinkles on his face. She wondered if he ate up her pink glitters she saved in her bedside table, but it still was in the right amount as the last time she checked. Also, they both came to Nahyun’s house a lot after that. She didn’t complain. She was ecstatic because she and Nahyun could play together even in weekends. They always went to the nearest park, sometimes with other children in the resident, while his daddy and Woohyun uncle stayed in, probably learning other things. Seriously, his daddy should learn how to not burn pancakes. Her teacher at school said burned food was not healthy, also they tasted yuck.

Today, Sunhee and Nahyun promised to comeback home from the park at 5. However, Nahyun was suddenly feeling hungry so they decided to go back a half hour earlier for afternoon tea. When they opened the front door, Nahyun remembered the password, the house was eerily empty. There were no conversations from somewhere inside that they usually heard from their fathers.

Looking at each other, she imagined spooky creatures that might be eating their dads.

No! There’s no such thing! His daddy said so. She was a brave girl. Brave girls do not be afraid.

After she made up her mind, she clasped their hands together as they ventured inside. A few little steps later, they heard unintelligible sounds from the kitchen. With timid movements, they walked closer to the room, hoping the sounds were from Sunggyu and Woohyun.

Oh yes, they were.

No spooky creature, just her daddy biting Woohyun uncle’s neck as the latter was stuck to the counter.

“Daddy!” Sunhee screamed. “Why are you biting uncle? Are you a vampire?” Her usually small eyes widened as she saw both guys broke apart in reflect, knocking a spatula to the floor but no one paid attention to the poor utensil. She also noticed skin on Woohyun uncle’s neck was red in a few locations. She stomped her feet, walking closer to Sunggyu. His uncle looked panic, making her turn angrier.

“Don’t kill Woohyun uncle! He’s nice and sweet and—“

“No! No, I wasn’t killing him!” Sunggyu cut her, hands frantically moving to deny the accusation while Woohyun was covering his reddish neck. His cheeks were as red but not from biting. “I was just… uh…”

“What? You’re just what?” she demanded.

“Um… We were just playing around. I’m not a vampire. No one was killing anyone.”

Sunhee was still judging him when Nahyun got out of her hiding place. She hugged Woohyun as she asked, “Appa, are you okay? Does it hurt?”

Both he and Sunggyu sighed almost at the same time. He then knelt down, looking at Nahyun and Sunhee before answering, “I’m fine. Sunggyu uncle didn’t hurt me. We were playing aro—“ he stopped and looked at the other guy, exchanging a meaningful glance. “Actually, we have something to tell you, girls.”

 

* * *

 

 

Nahyun was happy. Actually, she was always happy. Even though she grew up without a mother, she was still happy.

Her father was the coolest man she had ever met. He was busy as a p.e. teacher in a high school, but she never felt neglected. Her father cooked him tasty meals, styled her hair, gave her pretty dresses and brought her to exciting places. She didn’t need a mother was her answer when her friends asked. Her father was enough.

She knew he got her from a surrogacy program, though she did not really understand the term. Her father told him that he and his partner found a surrogate woman. She originally had three parents, but her mother was not obligated to be together with her. She was kind of sad that she couldn’t meet the woman who birthed her but her father said that was how the program was supposed to be.

Meanwhile, her other father left when she was almost one year old.

“It was because of me. I forced him to agree with the program although he wasn’t ready.” She remembered her father’s broken heart expression when he explained it. “I feel sorry to you. Because of me, you could only have one father.”

She said no, she was okay with it. If the guy left, then that meant he wasn’t good enough for her father. And for her.

She was always content with her life and sure that her father too. But sometimes, she caught her father looking at a couple with their children. His eyes were glistening before quickly changed into normal again. She asked once if her father missed his partner. He only chuckled and said that he liked to see how happy the families were. It made him want to make her happier than those strangers.

“Are you happy with me?” she asked.

“Of course I am. You’re the best gift this world gave to me. You’re my life and everything.”

It was great that they both were happy with each other, but she wondered whether they would be happier if there were another person in their life.

Then Sunhee came to her life, sitting beside her table at the first day of school. The girl’s hair was always tangled in some places (that she helped untangle it) and wore different socks sometimes. At first she asked if Sunhee was sick for she did not realize the mismatched socks, but the girl replied that she just had a chaotic morning and proceeded to tell Nahyun about her daddy.

Her first best friend came along with a clumsy uncle that the girl called ‘daddy’. She said her mother was not beside her anymore as well and even thought her daddy was not as perfect as Nahyun’s father, he was still the coolest person she had ever met. So, they both had cool fathers. She wondered if they could be cool together.

Two years later, she lived not only with one new person, but two. They might have conflicts here and there, but yes, she and her father did feel happier.

 

* * *

 


End file.
